NOTES for Luk 1:1-25

The Evangelist intends to lead his account from the beginning. But what event does he place at the beginning of the narrative? Luke chooses not the Nativity of Jesus, not the beginning of His preaching, and not even the preaching of John that preceded it. No, the story begins with a description of the events that came before John's birth, when hardly anyone could have imagined that the proclamation of the New Covenant was drawing near. The beginning matures quietly; it is hidden in the midst of Old Testament everyday life.

The angel tells Zechariah that his wife, no longer young, will become the mother of a great prophet. This had happened more than once in Israel; here there is, as it were, a repetition of what we have read more than once on the pages of the Old Testament. But the new thing that would soon be preached would not contradict the former one; it would be a further disclosure of the old revelation.

Zechariah did not believe the angel, so it is easy to see his muteness only as a punishment for weak faith. But this forced silence is also a path of inner recollection, an opportunity for prayerful concentration. Zechariah is silent about what has been revealed to him, and Elizabeth likewise hides her pregnancy until the appointed time. Both of them needed to carry through solitude what would become the main content of their later lives. The most important events often mature in quiet.

The Evangelist Luke offers his friend a "firm foundation" for his new faith. This does not mean that he will prove to him the existence of God or the truth of the apostles' witness. He will simply describe for him, in a small book, how God and man together sought a common language, sought a face-to-face meeting, and how they found it. In this sense his Gospel is a kind of "synthesis," a summary of all sacred history.

He begins with the story of the birth of the last prophet, John, but along the way he weaves into the narrative the whole history of God's promises and their fulfillments. It is no accident that this story is so similar to the account of Abraham and Sarah or to the birth of the prophet Samuel to barren Hannah. The shared details - elderly parents, an unbelievable message from an angel, doubt and faith - introduce us into the world of special relations with God, where a new life breaks into ordinary life, a life whose reality is hard to believe at first, a message, or, in Greek, Gospel.

These first lines of the Gospel contain one of the greatest mysteries of the New Testament. Beginning his narrative, Luke addresses a certain most excellent Theophilus, who was, by all appearances, his disciple. This address turns the whole text from an abstract legend into a very personal story that one person wants to share with another. The evangelist does not begin with loud words and weighty phrases; it is far more important to him to explain to his reader exactly what must be known about the life of Christ.

Christianity is not a set of doctrines and rules, but a living faith passed from heart to heart. It is a faith that lives in the relationships of people who, just like Luke and Theophilus, want to share with one another the joyful news of the life, death, and resurrection of the Savior.

The appearance of the angel to the Virgin Mary, the Annunciation, what is it? A revelation like the many others described in the Bible? Yes, of course, this is undoubtedly a revelation, one similar in essence and form to many others. A unique revelation speaking of the birth of the Messiah? Yes, certainly: the main content of the revelation is precisely the good news of His birth. Yet it is not only all this; there is something more here.

A hint of that more is reflected, by the way, in the traditional name of the event itself: Annunciation is the same thing as Gospel, good news. So where does the Gospel, the good news, the Annunciation begin? In the ancient prophecies about the Messiah's coming? Yes, of course, but there it is still only prehistory. In the promise the angel announces to the Virgin Mary? Undoubtedly, for he announces to Her the fulfillment of ancient prophecies. Yet the future is the future; it still lies ahead. And the past is the past; it already lies behind. The good news, meanwhile, is always in the present, or else it does not exist.

What, then, is in the present? "The Holy Spirit will come upon You, and the power of the Most High will overshadow You." More precisely, according to the sense of the Greek text, not "will come" and "will overshadow," but "is coming down" and "is overshadowing," since the Greek forms allow the present tense in translation no less than the past. This is truly good news. Good news always includes the one to whom it is addressed. It includes that person in the process that presupposes its reality, the possibility of its fulfillment in fullness, there and then, where and when such fulfillment is provided for by God's providence.

Yet God's providence, if it is revealed to a person, never remains merely in the future for that person. It is always revealed to the one to whom it is revealed as an eternal present, of which that person's own life becomes a part. So it happened with the Virgin Mary: the good news made Her herself part of God's providence. Of course, with Her consent: "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord." Without such consent a person will not become part of God's providence. The Virgin Mary consented, and became Who She became. The Mother of the Messiah.

Today we celebrate the beginning, the starting point of our salvation. This feast, which arose no later than the 5th century, was originally called the Day of the Incarnation; its modern name appeared later, not earlier than the 7th century. This ancient name expresses for us both the main meaning of the feast and the main Person who acts in it. We rejoice today because Almighty God desired to become incarnate in order to save us, and He fulfilled this will of His. And today we rejoice over Her who received Him in Her womb, over His Mother. We are not celebrating the anniversary of the event, because we do not know exactly when it happened: the date was set quite conventionally, simply exactly 9 months before Christmas. But we rejoice over the Incarnation as an accomplished fact. Once proclaimed by the prophets, it became an event of real history, and because of this everything became a participant in eternity. Let us cite the words of two great saints about this event, in translation from Greek.

Here is what St. John of Damascus says: "Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice: for He who is coessential with the Father, without beginning with Him and sharing His throne, in compassion and man-loving mercy emptied Himself, by the good pleasure and counsel of the Father, and dwelt in a virgin womb, purified beforehand by the Spirit. O wonder! God among human beings, the Uncontainable in a womb, the eternal in time: how glorious are the seedless conception, the ineffable self-emptying, and such a mystery! God is made small, and is incarnate, and is formed, when the angel tells the Pure One of the conception: Rejoice, O favored one, the Lord is with you, He who has great mercy."

And here are the words of St. Andrew of Crete: "Now is the joy of the Annunciation, the virgin celebration; earthly things are joined with heavenly things, Adam is renewed, Eve is freed from the ancient sorrow, and the dwelling of our nature, deified by the One who took our composition, becomes God's temple. O mystery! Incomprehensible is the way He made Himself small! Ineffable is the manner of conception! The angel serves the wonder; the Virgin womb receives the Son; the Holy Spirit is sent down; the Father from above is well pleased; reconciliation for all is created by [His] will! In Christ, saved by Christ, together with Gabriel let us cry out to the Virgin: Rejoice, O favored one, through You the Lord has come, our salvation, Christ our God, who received our nature and raised us to Himself; pray to Him for the salvation of our souls."

Continuing his account, the evangelist again and again returns to the main theme of his book: the new, joyful Good News announced to all people. After Zechariah, Mary from the town of Nazareth hears this news.

On the one hand, she continues the line of biblical righteous people and prophets (compare her prayer with the song of Samuel's mother Hannah in 1 Samuel, ch. 2), recognizing in obedience to God both His infinite superiority and His astonishing nearness. On the other hand, she is "blessed among women," that is, the most blessed one, who received the fullness of love and was granted the greatest mercy from God.

In the evangelist's solemn biblical language, the words most often found here are "blessing" and "grace," that is, the good Word and mercy that God gives to people. It appears that in this case these words best describe the gospel message first received two thousand years ago by the Mother of the Lord Jesus.